


Ternion [ U s ]

by Otherwise_Uncolonized



Series: Ternion  [유웃유] [2]
Category: Disney - All Media Types, Frozen (2013), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Acceptance, Affection, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Banter, Barebacking, Bittersweet, Bonding, Break Up, Canon Het Relationship, Childhood Trauma, Chronic Illness, Coma, Come Sharing, Community: disney_kink, Community: ot3_100, Conflict Resolution, Crossover Pairings, Demisexuality, Depression, Dirty Thoughts, Drama, Drunken Kissing, Elsa Has Issues, Embedded Audio, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Roller Coaster, Emotional Sex, Emotionally Repressed, Empathy, Erotic Poetry, Erotica, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Female-Centric, Fluff, Fluff and Mush, Frozen (2013) References, Healing, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I Saw Three Ships, Injury Recovery, Intense, Internal Conflict, Intimacy, Love Confessions, Lust, Making Love, Making Out, Making Up, Married Couple, Melancholy, Mild Smut, Moving In Together, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, OT3, Opposites Attract, POV Female Character, Pansexual Character, Passion, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Polyfidelity, Premature Ejaculation, Rare Pair Month, Rare Pairings, Rare Relationships, Reconciliation Sex, Regret, Relationship Problems, Reminiscing, Resolved Sexual Tension, Reunion Sex, Reunions, Revised Version, Romance, Romantic Angst, Romantic Friendship, Self-Esteem Issues, Separations, Sequel, Sexual Confusion, Sexual Experimentation, Sexual Frustration, Sharing a Bed, Snow Queen Elements, Tangled (2010) References, Tenderness, Threesome, Threesome - F/F/M, Unconventional Format, Unconventional Relationship, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, Vaginal Fingering, Voyeurism, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-10 00:20:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8919226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Otherwise_Uncolonized/pseuds/Otherwise_Uncolonized
Summary: ¸.·´¯`·.´¯`·.¸웃유유¸.·´¯`·.´¯`·.¸By seven thirty, she feels like Elsa is drinking more than she should.
By eight thirty, they're all too tipsy to count their refills.
By nine thirty, Elsa is slow dancing with her to Doris Day's "Remind Me."
By ten thirty, a lace veil falls between mind and flesh.
By eleven thirty, Rapunzel doesn't know who's frenching whom.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chrysalisdreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrysalisdreams/gifts), [MiraNova23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiraNova23/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to ["Them."](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5783197) Chrysalisdreams will find references to her Elugunzel polyfidelity fic, [Parfait.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8599933/chapters/19722031)

 

* * *

[Bated Breath](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA1zqMB_maM) [by Tinashe](LYRICS%20URL) 5:49

[Code by Layouttesst](http://layouttesst.livejournal.com/profile)

* * *

**[ 유웃유]**

* * *

**[ one /: "how it should be..." ]**

.

.

In the perfect ever after, with the perfect them, Elsa wouldn't be burning her lungs, Eugene wouldn't leave home without calling, and her fingers wouldn't be breaking her keypad while she crumbled on the kitchen floor.

It wouldn't feature a story about a lost boy who wanted to be numb and an innocent girl who had to thaw him because the Snow Queen stole his heart.

It would be about how the girl thawed them both, because love always thaws, and they all needed love; they all needed warmth.

It would begin on another lazy afternoon with Netflix, ginger ale, and secrets that never left the couch. Elsa would still have Raynaud's, but not lupus, and she would still have alopecia, but not fears. Eugene would still be the storyteller who rewrote them as the Snow Queen and Rapunzel in the tales he wrote for orphans like him and chronically ill people like them. He would still be the one who didn't judge them for being imperfect or different. He would still be the one who saw them past their diseases. 

It would progress towards the night when, somewhere between the modest smiles, countless drinks, nervous fidgets, and random politics, Elsa joked about how amusing it would be if polygamy was legal. The night when Eugene said that would be a mess, when a mess was what they wanted, when a mess was what they needed.

It would end with a goodnight hug turning into more, with Elsa's cherry lipstick pressed against her heart, with, "I love you both unconditionally," seeping from her mouth, with the sum of Elsa's porcelain parts laid bare on their satin sheets. The kingdom of her body would become their new commonwealth to build sky castles and _happily ever afters_ on. They would thaw her winter wonderland with their tongues and plant sunflowers in her garden with their teeth. He would drink the river between her thighs and she would breathe sunlight into her heart with her kiss.

The embargo that had kept Elsa's borders closed to them would be lifted. The ship that had kept them anchored to reality would be lost in the tsunami of her orgasm. All they had to do was close their eyes and open their hearts. It would be a Big Bang that occurred without noise, and then a different world, one without cannon laws against special kinds of love, would be born.

But her new dream is a burning tower with no one in it ((except her)).

So what she gets instead is thunder.

.

.

**[ two /: "how it is..." ]**

.

.

 _'Eugene would never do this,'_  her conscience pants.  _'Why would you think he'd ever do this?'_ What her conscience really wants to sob is, _'They would never do this.'_ To her. _'To us.'_

Why would they ruin their forever after by leaving her stranded on the dotted line?

She tries to rewind clips from the vlog her head had recorded of Eugene's activities over the week. He'd been smoking a cigarette pack on the balcony more than writing fairy tales on the laptop, an old flame he said he divorced when he married her, because by then he had no reason to burn the holes in his heart. The problem, she decided, was that he didn't know how to end the story he had been writing for them, the one that featured them as a trapped princess, an exiled queen, and an outlawed thief who were all trying to come to terms with who they were.  
  
_"I just don't know how it'll end,"_  Eugene once sighed,  _"or how **we'll**  end."_

_'...Or did his ending change and he was too afraid to tell me?'_

The volcano of half-lit cigarettes on the coffee table is a collection of his secrets, of the habits Elsa has probably picked up from him ― habits such as neglecting cardiovascular diseases like heartbreak because they don't want to feel the pain anymore.

 _'But why were they hurting? Is it my fault?'_  
  
An incoming call vibrates the phone. Above the number appears an icon of Elsa's smiling face, the face that always keeps her awake at night.   
  
Rapunzel punches "answer" and presses the cell against her ear, flattening her cowlicks with her other hand.  _"_ **Elsa** ―"

 _"Rapunzel,"―_ Elsa sounds like she's been weeping and running at the same time. Without losing time, she breaks down and cries,  _"Eugene is in an ambulance."_

The phone hits the floor.

This is where the tower collapses in two: one half lost in the rainstorm, and the other struck down by lightning.

.

.

**[ three /: "what if i told you that it was all in vain?" ]**

.

.

"An eyewitness said a kid stole his wallet," the detective says. "Mr. Rider chased him into an alley, where two men ambushed him with a lead pipe. His unconscious body wasn't reported by Mr. Johnson until two hours later."

"At this rate, he may only reach a vegetable state," the doctor says.

"He's lucky to be alive," the nurse says.

She's trying to listen to what they're saying but all she hears are her own sobs.

Eugene has a hose down his throat with IV's, tanks, tubes, and wires enbowering his body like barbs in a thorn bush. His face is as peaceful as sleeping beauty, as kissable as Briar Rose's, but his eyes won't wake up. No matter how many times she kisses his eyelids, his eyes won't wake up. She feels Elsa's shaky hands squeeze her shoulders as she tries to relay what the doctors have told them, but all she hears are " _coma"_ and her own sobs.

.

.

**[ four /: "would it still hurt you?" ]**

.

.

Four hours last fourteen lifetimes. Her lap is littered with five tissue boxes, forty tissue papers, and thirty pieces of one broken heart. She buries her nose into Elsa's throat, slurping on her tears. Elsa strokes her elbows as she holds her with unconditional love. Her fingernails reach up to move the porcupine hair away from her temple so that her lips can have a seat on her forehead.  
  
Having Elsa's lips puckered against her blackhead calms her hummingbird heart a little.

"He'll get through this," Elsa hoarsely whispers.

She looks up at her face. Creeks of mascara stripe Elsa's cheeks like smudged ink on white paper. Her sexy dress says that she had been at some classy party prior to now, probably with Hans. She glances over Elsa's hip to blink at the ticket that is sticking out of her open purse. The label says, "FIRST CLASS."

Rapunzel pulls away from Elsa's unconditional love and smears the snot buttering her nostrils, staring widely at the enemy flanking Elsa's ankle. "Why do you"―she sniffles―"wh-why do you have that?"

Elsa looks at it. Horror bleaches her skin three shades whiter. She closes her eyelids tightly for five seconds before sighing. Her head turns back towards Rapunzel. "I was..." ―Elsa bit her lip―"I was planning on going back to Oslo tomorrow morning."

Rapunzel shakes her head mutely. She doesn't know which questions to launch at her first.  _'You're leaving?! But why're you leaving?! What've I ever done to you to make you keep running away from me?_   _And what was Eugene doing with you tonight?!'_ She maturely starts with _,_ "Why was Eugene with you?"

Elsa won't look at her. Her partly lidded eyes are on her own knees. "He was trying to stop me from going," she elaborates. "I was at a dinner party that my old roommate had put together for her fiance. Eugene called her asking if she knew where I was because I haven't been returning his calls for two weeks. She told him that tonight would be my last night in New York. But when he got there, we..." Elsa blinks off to the side with her lips trying to frame the words. She sealed them shut and looked down, gating her tears behind her eyelids.

"...What? Elsa, what'd you  _do_?"

Elsa's bottom lip wobbles. "I argued with him." Her arms desert her arms to wrap around herself. "And he left the party without a clear head. I called him a few times to apologize for what I said, but I kept getting his voicemail. Then I heard an ambulance on Tiana's street two hours later. I had a feeling that it was for Eugene. When I arrived on the scene, they were pulling him onto a stretcher." Her anemic voice is strangled by guilt.

The belt of tears in Rapunzel's eyes tremble before spilling down her cheeks one drop at a time. She stares at Elsa without seeing her, and then turns her head to see nothing. After ten seconds, she looks back at Elsa with the same frozen face. "How could you do this...?"

Elsa hugs herself tighter without raising her head. Teardrops kiss her knees and rain down her calves, staining them black. "I'm so sorry, Rapunzel," she confesses in a breathless whimper. "I'm so  _sorry_..." She presses her fist against her forehead and hunches over, shoulders shaking. Black waterfalls cascade down her chin.

Rapunzel allows Elsa to crumble in her arms as the platinum blonde holds her own crying mouth, but she can't remove herself from the fact that Elsa did make a choice to hurt them, and now Eugene is paying for it.

.

.

 **[ five /: "** **would you still feel the same?** **" ]**

.

.

Days pass, and Eugene doesn't wake up to see the sunrise crown any of them. Fan cards are sent hourly after news of his coma finds the blogs. Rapunzel spends her evenings curled up in his hospital bed when the nurses aren't asking her to stay out of it. Elsa spends her nights buying groceries for Rapunzel's refrigerator when she's neglecting Eugene's condo. In that short amount of time, her scalp begins balding.

To see her follicles so devoid of the magic Eugene said her head produced from the florets of its garden forces her to stop believing that she's a lost princess with a frying pan warrior heart.

Elsa finds Rapunzel crying on the shower floor on the same morning she'd gone home to wash up. In her fancy clothes, heels, and makeup, she walks under the curtain of water, sits down, and holds her. For five minutes, they look like two water nymphs who share one body with two heads. Once she's ready to breathe again, Elsa pulls her out of her hideout and dries her hopelessness off her shoulders. She leads Rapunzel to the bed that Eugene's love used to fill and wrapps her in his blanket before wrapping her in her.

Their slippery legs and sliding ankles braid together until their bodies make an L on the mattress. Elsa kisses the meteor craters in Rapunzel's scalp while the brunette sobs against the pillow's soft cheek. She shivers at the sensation of Elsa's sharp nipples stabbing her shoulder blades. The Norwegian's cold blouse is thinner than a wet piece of toilet tissue due to the shower water, but the heat radiating between her legs hugs Rapunzel's backside in a way that feels soothing.

During her in-between state of dreaming and waking, she hears Elsa weep against her nape. She doesn't ask her why. Eugene was the trellised pergola that their vines grew on, and they were his wisteria, but fate has ripped them off and trampled them.  
  
Now they'll never grow back. 

.

.

**[ six /: "i wish i could hold you; i can't take it" ]**

.

.

Elsa is there before she is on Friday. Rapunzel doesn't alert her to her presence when she sees her. She watches her watch Eugene.   
  
Watches her hold his hand as she pets his cheek with the back of her finger.  
  
Watches her bend over to alight her lips on his jowl.

Watches her ink tears blacken her freckles.

Watches her hold the back of his neck and press her nose against his throat, exhaling shakily.

Rapunzel rests her forehead on the door frame and shuts her eyes, battling against her own tears. It feels gut-wrenching to watch Elsa's body language from the door, like the way she didn't say she loved him but said it with her hands, because it makes her want to love them both.

.

.

**[ seven /: "but you're still waiting on the moment; breath is bated..." ]**

.

.

She comes before Elsa does on Saturday. She hugs Eugene's forehead with hers and tells him that she's sorry that her sunlight hadn't been enough to keep him warm. Sorry that she had forgotten about how much people needed to embrace their own from within in order to thaw from with out. She tells him that she remembers how his body used to be made of swashbuckling adventures and seafaring dreams that guided her away from the shadows in Mother's home. She tells him that she remembers how his tongue used to take people away to somewhere free and rootless.

She takes a moment to hum the tune to, " _Bring Back What Once Was Mine,_ " from his musical. She practically fell asleep in her memories like that, with her tears raining on his cheeks like drops of sunlight wetting soil. Two minutes later, she feels his eyelashes twitch against her skin. When she opens her eyes, his are holding hers. There is no concept of time or memory in them, no recognition of self or reality, but they are  _Eugene's_. Before she can gasp his name, beeps, bells, and shouts separate them.

"He's awake!" the nurse yells.

In a panic, Eugene starts ripping out the tubes attached to his body because nurses have ripped her away from him.

"Eugene! No, wait,  _please_ ―!  **Eugene**!"Rapunzel's hand can't find a pocket between the shoulders and bodies blocking her. She needs to be with him to calm him down, but the nurses keep pushing her out of the room.

Eugene falls right back down the rabbit hole of unconsciousness as the staff restrains him. Rapunzel is still forbidden from entering the room until a doctor tells her that Eugene will most likely swim through several levels of consciousness before truly returning to himself. She only cries harder. Eugene's eyes open while the doctor is talking over him, but it takes the sound of him whimpering Rapunzel's name underneath the ventilator hose in his mouth to get her attention.

" _Eu_ ―gene!" she gasps.

"Rap-punzel..." He starts sweating from the fear of once again not knowing where he is.   
  
"Eugene...? Can you hear me? Find my  _voice_ , Eugene. I'm  _right_ here." She rakes away the damp strands on his forehead and begs him to stay with her.   
  
The staff removes the hose, run response tests, and inform Eugene of the currents that have brought him to them, giving her time to phone Elsa at his bedside. After she updates the breathless blonde, Rapunzel wiggles between the staff's bodies and latches onto Eugene like he'll dissipate. With his nose deep in her shoulder, Eugene's arm feels scared and protective as it wraps around her trembling back and squeezes her against him.

She withdraws to grin at him through the fog of tears. He smiles back faintly, his own eyes dripping and afraid, but still full of happiness. She grips the collar of his hospital gown and smashes their lips together, tasting her tears in the kiss as she changes the angle of her head to kiss him deeper.

Elsa rushes through the entrance. Startled by the interruption, Rapunzel and Eugene pull back. Elsa's hair is wilting from its [rose bun](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2uSGZUcEv5Q/UXFcLScRUPI/AAAAAAAADJ4/8OcwjPuVtpE/s1600/6-rose-bun.jpg), the heel of her shoe looks broken, and her off-the-shoulders pencil dress wears mud stains, but the platinum blonde doesn't care. She slides her purse off and dropped it on the floor with a thud. Her shoulders heave with her chest as she slurps in a breath and beams uncontrollably.

"Elsa...?" Eugene splutters out. "But I thought you were..."

Before Eugene can say another word, she races over and caresses his temples to purse her fervid kiss against his forehead. She pecks it a few times and put her third eye against his, pushing a quivery breath through her teeth as she laughs. "You're alright..."

"I will be in about six months, but you look like you've been through a blizzard," Eugene jokes in a groggy voice, touching the back of her hand.

Elsa chuckles stuffily and kisses his knuckles, gripping the fingers to rub her cheek against them. She closes her eyes and smiles while tears slide down the walls of her nose. Eugene opens his palm to cup her face.   
  
"We thought we'd lost you," she whispers. "They said you'd never wake up."

"And leave you two girls alone?" Eugene wipes the saline on Elsa's chin with his thumb, and then glances drowsily at Rapunzel to rub the small of her back. "I wouldn't even dream of it."

Elsa palms her tears away and tries to smile at the married couple as they kiss and hug. It was Rapunzel who ended up putting her arms around them both to pull all three of them into a hug.

.

.

**[ eight /: "living in a piece of ever after" ]**

.

.

Over the following days, Eugene has to relearn how to be Eugene. His right ear doesn't hear as well as his left and his leg is cocooned in a cast. He was able to go home before next month, but he doesn't recover the way Rapunzel hopes he will. On some evenings, he'll just stare at the Apple TV menu screen. When his hearing worsens, the doctor advises him to wear a hearing aid.

.

.

**[ nine /: "forever after" ]**

.

.

It becomes harder for Rapunzel to be Eugene's pergola.  
  
The weather doles out colds and her hair is still thinning due to stress. 

.

.

**[ ten /: "living in a piece..." ]**

.

.

Better fortune comes in the form of "unrefusable" movie deals for his Snow Queen franchise, a phenomenon that was about to take over the world. Elsa also has opportunities (and opportunists) phoning her left and right. Eugene's coma has gained nationwide sympathy, and because Elsa's stardom is linked to his name, the media exhumes her "secret" to air it without her consent. Instead of birthing Elsa's worst nightmare, which is being blocked from future employment, it leads to the lions of Hollywood flinging lofty endorsements at her in the forms of charity ball invitations, photo shoots, lupus sponsorship, and a starring role in the Snow Queen film. They don't seem to care that too much work aggravates her lupus flares.   
  
The only promotion Elsa chooses to take is "live-in nurse" for a sick Rapunzel and a crutch-reliant Eugene. Although Elsa's [lupus is currently quiescent](http://www.lupus.org/answers/entry/does-lupus-always-go-into-remission), Rapunzel can't say she dislikes being pampered by her. She doesn't even mind being spoon fed [Scott's Emulsion](https://purityinpearls.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/20130222-234204.jpg). Eugene whines about not wanting to be babied, but he likes putting his hands behind his head and kicking his foot up on the table while Elsa mothers him. It's an excuse to keep her off that plane, which is another pink elephant they have yet to tranquilize. 

.

.

 **[ eleven /: "of forever after..."** **]**

.

.

Elsa helps Eugene sort through the bills in the afternoons, deep-six his junk mail in the evenings, and organize the shelves of their new life inside the [Cobble Hill apartment](https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4696231/064e3568e2050c69a3d20a4be947d627.0.jpg) his popularity has bought them. Rapunzel never knew that Elsa owned reading glasses, but when she finally unsheathes them, Rapunzel notices that her specs paired with Eugene's make the duo look like co-workers as they discuss ― and lightly argue ― about the best way for him to spend his money. There's a layer of arousal undergirding their debates, too. Every time Elsa outsmarts him in mathematics,  _("Numbers Queen," he calls her)_  Rapunzel sees how impressed he looks. She's impressed as well.  
  
It's nice to have a philomath in her polymathic sphere, because Elsa probably used studying to escape from her gilded prison the same way Rapunzel had. Rapunzel's world feels more complete overall whenever she walks into the kitchen to find Eugene reading the paper in his pajamas while Elsa washes last night's dishes in her lace robe. She likes to pirouette between them and smooch Eugene on the temple before hugging Elsa from behind, and then get to whipping up breakfast.

.

.

**[ twelve /: "kisses on the forehead; we could fall into it..." ]**

.

.

Elsa's seventh night is cherry-topped with the triad flipping through old memories on a king-sized bed. Rapunzel doesn't like the whole Instagram or camera phone thing, so she had asked Eugene to make a photo album for their adventures with the Snow Queen's production. Elsa's favorite photo is of Rapunzel posing in her ice dress. The gown is too long for her legs, but she makes the best impression of Elsa. Rapunzel's favorite is of Elsa trying to feed parfait to a resistant Eugene while she shovels the top layer into her mouth.

Eugene was wearing snazzy [round glasses with bronze frames](http://g01.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1z.ZULpXXXXb1XFXXq6xXFXXXC/2016-Women-Men-Metal-glasses-frame-retro-color-Anti-Blu-ray-goggles-gafas-de-lectura-Anti.jpg) in the photo. Rapunzel brings up how good they look on him; Elsa confesses that she likes them on him, too. He promises to wear them 24.7 in their wake only. A grinning Elsa looks back at the album to finish peeling pages apart. Rapunzel puts her head on Elsa's shoulder with her fingers ribboned together against her folded legs, closing her eyes and smiling happily.

Well into the wee hours, Elsa falls asleep at the end of a recorded live of Eugene's favorite work _._ She didn't mean to fall asleep on their bed, but neither Rapunzel nor Eugene complain. Eugene was sitting on the end writing in his notebook  _(he says there's more intimacy between your hands and the words when you use a pencil instead of a keyboard)_  before accidentally falling asleep with his story on his heart. Rapunzel scoots under the sheets and wiggles down between them.   
  
Eugene rolls over and curls up against her side. Elsa rolls over and blows her breath against her bangs.

Eugene smells like  _Drakkar Noir_  cologne. Elsa smells like vanilla orchids.   
  
The combo blended with her pumpkin seed scent smells like perfection.  
  
Rapunzel kisses their foreheads and turns out the light, letting their aromas intoxicate her dreams. 

.

.

**[ thirteen /: "said it's impossible" ]**

.

.

The next morning, Elsa is up before they are. The evidence is the rumpled, cold spot beside her. Automatically thinking she has left them without saying goodbye, Rapunzel jogs into the kitchen in her [pink chemise](https://corsetvixen.warhead.com/images/rich-text/chemise.jpg?rs=1449386640). She finds Elsa standing by the sink in her [silk nightgown](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1_270KVXXXXX0XVXXq6xXFXXXN/100-font-b-pure-b-font-font-b-silk-b-font-long-nightgowns-women-Sexy-sleepwear.jpg). The platinum blonde resembles a beautiful woodland elf with [her messy do](https://i.imgur.com/nfP5eU8.jpg) and long, unclad legs. It's most the skin and hair she's ever seen ― the freest Elsa has ever looked. Rapunzel wants to ask her if she can paint her this way so that she can show Elsa's past self a portrait of the woman she was destined to become.

But then Elsa looks up from her iPhone, and Rapunzel notices that her eyes aren't smiling. "I have a few errands to run today," she says. "Will you two be okay until noon?"

Rapunzel thought she said,  _"We'll be alright,"_  but judging by how quickly Elsa is putting on her robe, she must've said something else.

.

.

**[ fourteen /: "so impossible" ]**

.

.

Elsa doesn't come back later. She calls from the apartment she's supposed to be moving out of to tell Rapunzel that something came up. When Rapunzel asks her what, she stutters out inconsistencies about her short term lease, her landlord's broken promises, and phone calls she has to make for Norway. Elsa adds,  _"I'll be home tonight"_  by accident, but it's a beautiful accident that sends Rapunzel's heart aflutter.

.

.

**[ fifteen /: "maybe i can tell you" ]**

.

.

Elsa finally comes  _home_ , but she looks shaken up that she does and won't say why.

With practice, Eugene is back to himself on the same day. His first walk, drugless and unassisted by crutches, is hard, but both girls were there to help him. He graduates to only needing one crutch in time. The better Eugene gets, the more Elsa stops spending her nights with them. She says that's a bad idea, but she looks shaken up that she does and won't say why.

Rapunzel wonders if it's her fault that it's a bad idea now ―  _her_  fault that Elsa doesn't want to say. She knew Elsa was going to board the first plane to Oslo now that "they don't need her anymore," and she can't live with that. 

On the dawn of Elsa's last day with them, Rapunzel meets her back in the kitchen. She watches her shoulder blades move to the motion of her hands scrubbing clean dishes. She considers running up and flinging her arms around Elsa's waist and hug her spine with her cheek and whimper,  _"Please don't go."_ She considers telling her that she loves her as much as she loves Eugene. But she doesn't do any of these things.

All she has the strength to do is watch Elsa walk out of their front door, like she's okay with this, like she has a  _choice._

She never had a choice.

.

.

**[ sixteen /: "love you like the rain that falls much faster" ]**

.

.

It's strange without Elsa.   
  
Different without Elsa.  
  
Rapunzel feels like a piece of her and Eugene has broken off from them, and it's an odd incompletion to accept even though this is how it already was before Elsa's magical heels walked into their lives.  
  
Eugene manages to reel Elsa back in by inviting her to their dinner party at seven. The occasion is the Snow Queen's anniversary. The party will only consist of them. It's an excuse to keep her off that plane, which is a pink elephant they were finally ready to tranquilize.

In the meantime, Eugene hikes to the kitchen on one crutch to swig down a glass of pain killers at dusk. Rapunzel gently wraps her arms around him from behind and gets a boost from her toes to kisses him on the cheek. His smile line kisses her back. Eugene asks her to give him a frontal view so he can smooch her on the lips.

Two smooches turn into deep frenching. After the necking session gradually expires, she breathlessly tucks her head under his chin and holds him tightly. He leans his tailbone against the sink and massages her nape with her fingertips.

"Elsa told me something I've been meaning to talk to you about, Eugene," she mumbles. 

"And what's that?" He sounds hesitant. 

Rapunzel looks up at him. His fingers are still on the base of her nape. "She told me you had a fight with her at Tiana's party."

His smile melts.

"Were you trying to stop her the night you were...put in the hospital?"

Eugene untangles their arms. "So that's what she told you." He pulls out a chair at the dining table, sits down, and places his crutch on the table to lean back and sigh. "Well, it wasn't that. I knew I couldn't stop her from leaving. It's her life, after all. I just thought she owed it to you ― to both of us ― to open up and talk about how she feels, like why she felt the need to leave without telling anyone goodbye. I knew it would hurt you especially, and I wasn't about to let that happen. Did you...think we were doing...'other' things behind your back?" He looks nervous.

She rubs her arm. "I thought...I thought you were leaving me out."

"Leaving you out? Out of what?" He playfully pulls her in by her wrist and seats her on his lap, stroking her cheek apologetically. "I didn't mean to make you feel like I was leaving you out. I made the mistake of constantly trying to get Elsa to face something she obviously wasn't ready to." He sighs. "But it's something we _all_ need to talk about like adults."

"...What is it that we all need to talk about like adults, Eugene?" She wants to hear him say it.

"The mess we're all in," he quietly confesses.

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**[ seventeen /: "if you will have me, i'll make you happy" ]**

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Elsa arrives ten minutes late, but opening the door to her [champagne dress, diamond studs, white capelet](https://orig06.deviantart.net/bfa2/f/2017/009/5/d/dinner_dress_by_x_jazzy_b_real_x-dauw2so.png), and crystal hairpins make up for it. Rapunzel is so delighted by how gorgeous Elsa looks that she forgets the real motive behind the "shindig." Eugene, who is garbed in a grey vest and Prussian blue dress shirt, ends up using the candlelit dinner to talk about the motion picture the Snow Queen is getting.

Elsa appears to need the help of alcohol to finish the conversation. Eugene appears to need the help of water to stop glancing at her legs. Rapunzel needs the help of Saint Mary to stop sighing at how awkward they're making the three-ponged date. She asks Elsa if drinking is bad for her. The leggy blonde swears that alcohol won't trigger a flare as long as she isn't on NSAIDS.

By seven thirty, she feels like Elsa is drinking more than she should. By eight thirty, they're all too tipsy to count their refills. By nine thirty, Elsa is slow dancing with Rapunzel to [Doris Day's "Remind Me.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2xncaYc2qI)" By ten thirty, a lace veil falls between mind and flesh. By eleven thirty, Rapunzel doesn't know who's frenching whom.

She recalls watching  _Anna and the King_  on Eugene's iPad from the balcony's couch. She recalls Elsa's cheek sleeping on Eugene's shoulder and hers resting against his chest while they both napped off the booze. She recalls swimming out of her dreams to invite a kiss from her husband, who obliged without further ado. She recalls his lips wandering down her neck until they find a spot to nibble on under her ear. She recalls Elsa opening her eyelids to smile sleepily at them, but there was sadness moistening her eyes, a sadness that Eugene bandaided by turning his head to lay his lips on her forehead; then he stroked her arm as if to say, _"We love you, too."_

Elsa raised her head and searched his eyes before clamping one of his stray strands between her fingertips. She pulled it away from his smile to peck the space between his nostril and his cheek. Her mouth peregrinated feverish skin until it discovered the softness of his lips. Eugene slowly inhaled through his nose, docking his hand on her rump to squeeze the cheeks before moving it up her tailbone. Wet smacks, deep moans, and dizzy sighs filled the silence as arousal dampened their spectator's V-string.

Elsa's leg slid into Eugene's lap as she nibbled on his tongue, accidentally grazing the bulge in his pants with a bump that made him grunt. He cupped her cheek and kissed her harder with a closed mouth, pushing his heartfelt desperation into the kiss. Elsa pulled back to catch her breath and stare at him, stunned by his tearful eyes. He panted heavily. She tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned down slowly, bridging their lips together while she gazed into his eyes; Eugene closed them when she closed hers.

Smiling, Rapunzel trailed kisses from his ear to where his moist lips enwrapped Elsa's. Her light smooches went from traveling Elsa's throat to taking the highway between her breasts. The platinum blonde turned her lips out of Eugene's teeth to sigh against the corner of his mouth. He sucked on her lobe while she moaned at the warmth Rapunzel's breath smothered her cleavage with. As Rapunzel's mouth loved her heart ever so tenderly, Elsa tilted her head back to remove the crystal snowflake on the end of her braid. Her silver curls slithered out of the hair tie with a bounce before drizzling down her spine like runnels of starlight.

The way she flashed her throat and stuck her oily chest out made Rapunzel want to immortalize her on a canvas. Elsa lowered the straps of her gown to the sides of her arms in order to give her more access to her heart. Rapunzel kissed the hummingbird in her chest one last time and then stroked her calf, admiring the curve. Elsa caught her hand and guided it back up the ramp of her leg. Quivering fingers were taken into the El Dorado between equally quivering thighs. The liquid gold inside that treasure kingdom coated Rapunzel's nail beds as Elsa piloted her exploration. 

Five experimental pumps later, Rapunzel's sticky fingers exited Elsa's safe to share the loot with her husband. He obediently ate and swallowed what his wife fed him. Having sucked her fingers clean, Eugene kissed Rapunzel deeply to swap the taste with her. Elsa's nose ran down Eugene's jugular vein as the married couple made a picnic out of her honey water. She rubbed her forehead against his throat and walked her false nails down his zipper. 

Eugene replied by shooting fireworks too soon, which ended badly for his thigh. Flustered yet still drunk, he grabbed his crutch and got off the couch to coggle back inside the apartment. Elsa was a cackler when she was under the influence, so she replied to Eugene's embarrassment by flopping down on her back where he had been sitting and cracking up until she had laughed herself to sleep.

The last image Rapunzel recalled was using Elsa's breasts as pillows to do the same, though not without kissing her heart and nuzzling it first.

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 **[ eighteen /: "praying that tomorrow i'll be braver** **" ]**

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The next morning, Elsa is up before they are. The evidence is the empty, cold spot beneath her. Automatically thinking she has left them without saying goodbye, Rapunzel stumbles into the foyer in her [purple cocktail dress.](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB12KxsIXXXXXbJXpXXq6xXFXXXp/2016-New-Arrival-Best-Quality-Free-Shipping-Short-font-b-Dress-b-font-Lace-Up-Vestidos.jpg) 

She finds Elsa standing in the open door in her champagne gown. The platinum blonde resembles a defeathered angel with her messy do and tearful blue eyes. It's most the misery and agony she has ever seen ― the saddest Elsa has ever looked. 

She feels the need to run up and fling her arms around her waist and hug her spine with her cheek and whimper,  _"Please don't go."_  She feels the need to tell her that she loves her as much as she loves Eugene. That she's sorry she confessed her love with her hands instead of her mouth.

But she doesn't do any of these things.

All she has the strength to do is watch Elsa walk out of their front door, like she's okay with this, like she has a  _choice._

She does have a choice.

Rapunzel yanks the door open and runs out of the apartment barefoot. She jogs onto the sidewalk and looks left and right, stranded in a blizzard of people. Twenty minutes of shouting, searching, texting, and phoning stretches into ten minutes of sobbing into her hands on a park bench. 

Now they'll never grow back. 

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 **[ "here's my confession, saving it special: hoped it would be you all along...** **" ]**


End file.
